That's what I would do. Buy a nice thunderbolt enclosure (or go much cheaper and get a 2.5' sata enclosure) - and just run off of that. That's what I did with my Mac mini 2014 for years. Then definitely watch the wear on it.
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SSD LIFE DOWN 45% in 6 months 120GB SSD 2TB HD
- Thread starter pistonpilot
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@pistonpilot: Love the way you use Applecare.
If the Fusion drive do fail while your AppleCare is still effective, do you have to bring the whole iMac to the Apple Service Center to replace?
During that time, having a bootable external drive without the iMac is useless, I think. I'd just keep the external drive as Time Machine, and keep using the Fusion drive in current mode until it dies and bring it to Apple Service Center....
If the Fusion drive do fail while your AppleCare is still effective, do you have to bring the whole iMac to the Apple Service Center to replace?
During that time, having a bootable external drive without the iMac is useless, I think. I'd just keep the external drive as Time Machine, and keep using the Fusion drive in current mode until it dies and bring it to Apple Service Center....
Fixing it isn't worth it unless there are other issues to fix. The iMac will work much faster booting from an external USB C SSD. Once cloned to the external drive, I can break the Fusion Drive, and just use the 2TB internal for storage.
Here is something I'll wager many of you DO NOT know:
Applecare is onsite. Did you know that? If you don't, it's because Apple won't offer it to you, but if you are in most of the 1st world, you can schedule your repair in your home or office.
I live in Bangkok. We have an Apple Store for only the last 1.5 years. They don't do onsite repair even though they are required by Apple. Apple is gutless in demanding their authorized repair abide by their agreement with Apple.
So for me, getting a repair means taking a 27 inch iMac to the Apple Store which is not close even though I live in Bangkok and the store is in Bangkok. It's not a pleasant experience.
This is why, it is worth my buying an external drive and solving my own problem.
Applecare is onsite. Did you know that? If you don't, it's because Apple won't offer it to you, but if you are in most of the 1st world, you can schedule your repair in your home or office.
I live in Bangkok. We have an Apple Store for only the last 1.5 years. They don't do onsite repair even though they are required by Apple. Apple is gutless in demanding their authorized repair abide by their agreement with Apple.
So for me, getting a repair means taking a 27 inch iMac to the Apple Store which is not close even though I live in Bangkok and the store is in Bangkok. It's not a pleasant experience.
This is why, it is worth my buying an external drive and solving my own problem.
The problem is not present where I live. There is one authorized dealer and Service Center for Apple (run by a VN company named FPT) just 1 km from my house.
If I ever buy a new Mac, I will definitely purchase an Applecare with it.
Since a "2.5" SATA" runs 1/6th the speed of a TB3 external on a 2017 or later iMac, why would anyone recommend that?
A Samsung X5 is the only reasonably priced external that runs at the same speed. It won't work on your 2014, even through the TB2–TB3 adapter since that adapter cannot pass bus power.
There are other TB3 externals but they cost more.
A SATA III is about half the speed of the AHCI blade in a 2014 with a Fusion or SSD. Replacing that with a slow NVMe 3x4 such as the P1 or 660p will make a 2014 run about 2.5x faster and costs a lot less than putting that blade in any TB2 external. There is no advantage to a fast blade like the 970 EVO in a 2013–2014 iMac. The 2011–2012 are SATA III, even those with blades.
A SATA III external isn't a bad idea for a 2011–2014 iMac from a cost/benefit perspective but for a 2017– on, it's a terrible idea.
The 2015 model is unique. It can run nearly as fast as a 2017 when the AHCI blade is replaced with a fast NVMe 3x4 like the 970 EVO but there's no cost effective TB2 option that gives the same performance. That blade should just be replaced for maximum performance.